Imperial Manufacture Of Sarreguemines - Pair Of Medicis Vases - Porphyry Alike

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Pair of polished stoneware vases with inclusions imitating porphyry (two elements)
Original iron butterfly mounts
Signed Sarguemines in hollow for each
Dimensions: H. 26; W. 21 (cm.)
Circa 1805-1810

Rare pair of Medicis-shaped vases, resting on a circular pedestal. The stoneware includes small inclusions imitating porphyry, and the whole is finely polished to imitate stone.

A confidential and prestigious production
From the Consulate onwards, Utzschneider and Fabry became known for these productions, the beginnings of which can be dated to around 1806. The company was crowned with success at the Industrial Products Exhibition of the same year, when the factory received a first-class silver medal. A very large order was placed by the imperial administration in 1810. The very large pieces (between one and two meters high) were then mounted with gilded bronze by Thomire. The preparatory drawings and correspondence relating to these deliveries are now preserved in the National Archives. It should be noted that the Moselle factory's productions were exhibited at Thomire's and then at Delafontaine's in Paris.

Works in comparison:
- Pair of mounted vases, ovoid in shape, inv. 293 and 294 from the Marmottan collection
- The large torches, formerly in the collections of Hubert de Givenchy, now at Malmaison

Bibliography: - Jules and Paul Marmottan, collectors, exhibition catalog, 1990 - Porphyry, the purple stone, from the Ptolemies to the Bonapartes, exhibition catalog, 2003 - A Faience Factory in the Service of the Empire: Napoleonic productions in Sarreguemines, exhibition catalog, 2020

Condition report: restoration to the neck of one.